Rhizomatiks
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Rhizomatiks is a Japanese creative collective dedicated to creating large scale commercial and artistic projects using both arts and technology. Founded in 2006, the company's members come largely from the fields of visual arts,
media arts New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D ...
, computer programming, architecture and engineering. Rhizomatiks has collaborated with various professionals and companies to produce music, dance recitals, videos, and sports such as a figure skate, facing, basketball and synchronized swimming. It gained attention in 2008, with Daito Manabe's YouTube video, and in 2010 with Perfume's live concert at Tokyo Dome as well as its participation in
Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...
and
transmedia Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of adapting a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. From a product ...
festivals around the world.


Origin

Rhizomatiks was founded as a collective of creative people in 2006 in Tokyo to work on large-scale commercial projects. Some of its early projects were in collaboration with the Japanese pop group
Perfume Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...
, on their single ''Polyrhythm'' in 2007, which led to touring with the band. They first gained traction with a video piece published in 2008 called ''Electric Stimulus To Face'', which gained more than a million
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
views within the first month. The company went international, becoming a fixture at transmedia festivals around the world and expanding its portfolio ten times over. In 2014, Rhizomatiks collaborated with dance troupe Elevenplay, making an appearance at the
Festival Internacional Cervantino The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short pla ...
. It also participated in the Art Fair Tokyo of 2015 with the display of its "mega-synth system," which worked like a regular
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
. In 2023, the company collaborated with two-time Olympic champion
Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater and ice show producer. Universally regarded as one of the greatest figure skaters in history for his well-rounded skills, achievements, innovations, longevity, popularity, and impact on the sport, he started skat ...
in the creation of his solo ice show ''
Gift A gift or present is an item given to someone (who is not already the owner) without the expectation of payment or anything in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is intended to be free. In many cou ...
'', the first
ice show An ice show is an entertainment production which is primarily performed by ice skaters. The major ice shows were founded between 1936 and 1943, when professional figure skaters began to appear in shows, in hotels, at fairs, and "at any place a ...
to be held at
Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often us ...
.


Members

Rhizomatiks is a combination of creators from various fields such as architects, visual artists, media artists, designers, musicians, engineers and programmers. The founder of the group is
Daito Manabe (born 1976) is a Japanese media artist, programmer, engineer, and DJ who creates artwork and interactive installations that utilize contemporary technologies such as virtual reality as well as prominent use of light and sound. He founded Rhiz ...
, an artist, composer, programmer, designer, DJ and VJ. Manabe came from a traditional media art environment, with a degree in dynamic sensory programming from the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences and a degree in mathematics from the
Tokyo University of Science , formerly "Science University of Tokyo" or TUS, informally or simply is a private research university located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. History Tokyo University of Science was founded in 1881 as The Tokyo Academy of Physics by 21 graduate ...
. The CTO of the group is Tokyo-based artist and engineer Motoi Ishibashi. Ishibashi studied control systems engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, as well as mechanical and image processing engineering at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in Gifu, at the inception of digital media production. He met Manabe at IAMAS, who was also a student. In 2011, he and Manabe were the recipients of an Award of Distinction in the interactive art category of the Prix Ars Electronica. That same year, he received the Excellence Award at the 15th edition of the Japan Media Art Festival. Since 2015, he has co-directed Rhizomatiks Research along with Manabe, a strand devoted to research and development in the spheres of art, technology and entertainment. He is currently working on the development of new artistic methods touching on both the visual environment and the elaboration of engineering solutions in terms of artistic production and interactive public spaces. Founding member Seiichi Saito studied architectural design at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in New York and worked in advertising, before returning to Japan and joining Rhizomatiks. He is noted for his three-dimensional interactive commercial artwork, based on architectural concepts. Alongside being the director of the company, he is a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of Science. Another founding member is Hidenori Chiba, who has a background in website development. Currently, he is in charge of web design, system engineering and programming. Other members of the company include Satoshi Horii, Daisuke Nakahama, Hiroyasu Kimora, Sumito Kamoi, Ichiro Kojima, Youichi Sakamoto, Muryo Honma, Keisuki Arikuni and others.


Work and artistry

Rhizomatiks produces interactive materials, crossing the boundaries between design, art and entertainment. Projects often involve collecting massive amounts of data using
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...
,
Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
controllers and sensors to track dance movements in order to recreate human forms and movements as real-time 3D representations. It is also known for using
projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a video projection, projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industr ...
, lasers, sonar, robots and drones. Rhizomatiks seeks using new ideas for artistic expression and commercial projects. Its commercial pieces tend to be large-scale due to the funding they receive, with leadership varying over projects. The company's founder Manabe claims "Rhizomatiks is like a music label''".'' CTO Shunichi Shimizu claims "People with similar values gather and each person pursues different projects. They’re a challenging group of people, whether the project's commercial or noncommercial in nature, and they aren’t able to stop trying something new. They are not just artists, they’re also Japanese craftsmen who focus on detail. This might also explain why they are essentially ‘process driven’ in their approach to projects".


References


External links


official website
{{Perfume (Japanese band) Design companies of Japan Entertainment companies of Japan Mass media companies of Japan Design companies established in 2006 Japanese companies established in 2006